Kremona Solea Review – Classic Elegance And Quality

Body And Neck:
Hardware:
Sound:
Value:

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Kremona have a solid reputation as master guitar builders since establishing themselves in Bulgaria in 1924, and uphold this reputation with their renown Artist Series – their premium range of guitars hand-made by their most experienced luthiers, for professional level guitarists.

And this high-end Solea is an important part of that series; built with exotic woods and superior attention-to-detail. It’s no wonder that it features in our article highlighting the best premium acoustic guitars on the market today!

Body And Neck

We promised exotic woods, and exotic woods are what you will get! With a traditional flat top body shape and a scale length of 25.6”, this Solea features a beautiful solid red cedar top with a high-quality tight and straight grain. The back and sides are the highlight – crafted from solid cocobolo, which is a stunning tropical wood with an eventful and colorful grain. The entire body has a glossy thin polyurethane finish, with some beautiful detailing – including an attractive wooden and abalone rosette, and a flourished cocobolo heel cap.

The quality woods continue into the neck – this is made from Honduran cedar, and is joined to the body at the 12th fret, with a set dovetail joint. The fretboard, with a nut width of 2.04”, is a lovely Indian ebony, and is home to 19 frets and no inlays. It’s a well-made guitar, and plays as smooth as butter – as you’d expect from a Kremona in this price range.

Hardware

The Kremona Solea’s build quality and superlative woods are complemented by the simple but effective hardware. This includes six handcrafted brass machine heads that feature black tuning keys – another sophisticated addition.

The bridge of the guitar, like the fretboard, is made from ebony, and also features a bone saddle, with a matching bone nut. Finally, the Solea comes shipped with a deluxe wooden arch top hard shell case, which is an essential piece of kit for a guitar in this price range.

Sound

Aside from looks and components, this is one fine guitar in the sound department! The cocobolo back and sides offer a big, rich tone, not too unlike to rosewood. The red cedar is naturally very warm, so you get a mellow, clear and consistent sound – with shimmering trebles and good bass response – and plenty of projection.

Conclusion

You won’t be surprised to hear that we are big fans of the Kremona Solea – the historic Bulgarian brand know how to make a good classical guitar. At its high-end price point, it will mainly appeal to professional performers and recording artists, but it’s a guitar that will last a lifetime so shouldn’t be limited to a small few. It sports elegant looks (especially that stunning cocobolo) with some fine detailing, while the sound is exquisite – seriously hard to fault.

For more info about the Kremona Solea, click here.
For more acoustic guitar under $2000 you might like, click here.